All these works Saadia wrote between A.D. 915 and 928—i. e., before he was thirty-six years of age. So great was the reputation which these literary works secured for him, that David b. Sakkai, the prince of the captivity (tinn), sent for him to come to Sora in Babylon [EnucaTiox], where he was ap pointed Gaon of the academy (928), a dignity which ha(' never before been conferred upon any but the sages of Babylon, who were selected from the learned teachers of their own academies. After occupying this high office a little more than two years (928-30), he was deposed through the jealousy of others and his own unflinching integrity. Ile however retained his office in the presence of an anti-Gaon for nearly three years more (930-933), when he had to relinquish his dignity altogether. He then retired to Bagdad, where he resided as a private individual for four years (933-937), and composed sacred poems, compiled a prayer-book, and wrote against the celebrated Massorite Aaron b. Asher [BEN ASHER], as well as those two philo sophical works—viz., the commentary on the Book .7dzira, and the treatise entitled Faith and Doc trine 0-nrn rroint..)—which were the foundation of the first system of ethical philosophy among the Jews. He was re-installed in his office as Gaon of Sora in 937, laboured in the academy for five years, raising it to the highest state of prosperity, and died in 942, in the fiftieth year of his age. In his translations and expositions of the Bible, Saadia tells us, in the introduction to the Penta teuch (London Polyglott, vol. vi., beginning), he had a threefold object in view—i. He was desirous to render the Holy Scriptures accessible to the people at large ; a To demolish Karaism, which was then undermining the Talmudic interpretation, thus in fact to preserve the traditional against the Karaite exegesis ; and iii. To oppose the fana ticism and perverseness of the mystics who took the anthropomorphisms of the Bible literally, and formed to themselves the grossest representations of the Deity, ascribing to him a body, sensuous organs, passions, etc. It was this anxiety to effect
a harmony between the teachings of the Bible, the Talmud, and philosophy, which made him para phrase loosely and interpret unnaturally every pas sage which, in its obvious sense, did not square with the traditional exegesis, or with his philosophical notions. Thus, ex. gr., as he did not admit the existence of an'evil principle, or Satan, in opposi. tion to the Deity, Ile maintained that Satan, who is spoken of in the Book of Job as the tempter, was not a demoniac power, but a human adversary ; for,' says be, if we believe that an angel is capable of envy and jealousy, we shall also have to concede that he has other passions and sensuous desires, which is contrary to the idea of angels' (comp. The Frasment of Saadia's Commentary on .7o.b in Munk's Notice stir Saadia, p. 8). The Arabic style of his translatiorr is pure and elegant. He often shows his mastery of tbe two languages by selecting such expressions in his version as cor respond in their sound to the original Hebrew. Unlike his Jewish brethren who wrote Arabic, he employed Arabic letters. (Comp. Ibn Ezra, Com mentary on Gen. ii. 11.) Literature.—Rappaport, Biography of R. Saadia Gaon, in the Hebreu, Essays ana' Reviews, entitled Bikure Ha-yltim, vol. ix. p. 20-37, Vienna 1828 ; Geiger, Recensionen Rappaport's Biographien in Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, vol. i. p. 182, etc., Frankfort-on-the-Maine 1835, ibid. vol. v. p. 261, etc., Leipzig 1844 ; Munk, Notice sur Rabbi Saa dia Gaon et sa versthn Arabe in Cahen's Bible, vol. bc. p. 73, etc., Paris 1838 ; Ewald and Dukes, Beitriige ma. Geschichte der aeltesten Azzsleguns des Alten Testamentes, vol. i. p. 1-115 ; vol. ii. p. 115, Stuttg,art 1844 ; Fdrst, Bibliotheca yudaica, i. 266-271; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr.
Bibliotheca Bodleiana 2156-224; Graetz, Ges chichte der yuden, vol. v. pp. 302, ff. ; 529, ff. — C. D. G.